[WSMDiscuss] US to review history of Indigenous boarding schools : Deb Haaland (al-Jazeera)

[Jai Sen]

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Turtle Island in movement…, The US in movement…, Indigenous Peoples in movement…, Justice in movement…, Resistance in movement…, History in movement…, Herstory in movement…

“To address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools and to promote spiritual and emotional healing in our communities, we must shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past no matter how hard it will be,” Haaland said.

[Cautiously said, good news : It seems that the discovery of the remains of Indigenous children incarcerated in a so-called ‘Residential School’ in western Canada, and the uproar around this in Canada – and, perhaps, internationally ? –, has now led the US government to act on the structurally parallel and accompanying history of attempted genocide in the course of colonisation in the US part of Turtle Island…  And indeed, given the slowness with which the government of [Settler] Canada has so moved in relation to addressing this question in Canada, it seems clear that it perhaps takes what is now the case in the US – of having an Indigenous Person in high office in government – for government to act decisively, in such matters.  (Which, ironically, Canada used to have, with Jody Wilson-Raybould as Minister of Justice, until other parts of the Canadian government created conditions that forced her to resign…)  

[But, and this said, let’s see what actually takes shape in the US :

US to review history of Indigenous boarding schools : Deb Haaland

Interior Secretary launches probe into US practices over 150 years to wipe out Native American tribal identity and culture

al-Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/22/us-to-review-history-of-indigenous-boarding-schools-deb-haaland <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/22/us-to-review-history-of-indigenous-boarding-schools-deb-haaland>
Note (js) : The US official cited in this article, Deb Haaland, is a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo tribe and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary



Native American girls from the Omaha tribe at Carlisle School, Pennsylvania - tens of thousands of children were taken from their parents to be 're-educated' [File: Corbis via Getty Images]



The [US] federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of the institutions, which across the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities, US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Tuesday.

The unprecedented work will include compiling and reviewing decades of records to identify past boarding schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tribal affiliations of students, she said.

Canada: ‘This one unmarked grave is what genocide looks like’ <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/1/canada-this-one-unmarked-grave-what-genocide-looks-like>
Canada to Indigenous women: ‘Our systems have failed you’ <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/3/canada-to-indigenous-women-our-systems-have-failed-you>
Canada PM slams church amid call for probe into Indigenous deaths <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/5/canada-pm-blasts-church-amid-call-for-probes-on-indigenous-deaths>
The Indigenous woman who survived a desolate Arctic island <https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/6/22/ada-blackjack-the-female-robinson>
“To address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools and to promote spiritual and emotional healing in our communities, we must shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past no matter how hard it will be,” Haaland said.

A member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo tribe and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, Haaland outlined the initiative while addressing members of the National Congress of American Indians during the group’s midyear conference.

She said the process will be long, difficult and painful and will not undo the heartbreak and loss endured by many families.


The boys’ dormitory at Lac du Flambeau in northern Wisconsin, built in 1895, is a remnant and reminder of the Government Boarding School there, which took young native Americans from their families and prevented them from speaking their parents’ language [Courtesy: Creative Commons]


Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the United States enacted laws and policies to establish and support Indian boarding schools across the nation. For over 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation.

Haaland talked about the federal government’s attempt to wipe out tribal identity, language and culture and how that past has continued to manifest itself through longstanding trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, premature deaths, mental disorders and substance abuse.
The recent discovery of children’s remains <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/1/canada-this-one-unmarked-grave-what-genocide-looks-like> buried at the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school has magnified interest in that legacy both in Canada and the US.

In Canada, more than 150,000 First Nations children <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/3/canada-to-indigenous-women-our-systems-have-failed-you> were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and were not allowed to speak their languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

After reading about the unmarked graves in Canada <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/28/remains-of-215-children-found-at-indigenous-school-site-in-canada>, Haaland recounted her own family’s story in a recent opinion piece published by the Washington Post.



US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has launched the US probe after reading reports of an unmarked grave in Canada that held the remains of 215 Indigenous children [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo]


Haaland wrote she is “a product of these horrific assimilation policies” and recounted how her “maternal grandparents were stolen from their families” at the age of eight.
She cited statistics from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which reported that by 1926, more than 80 percent of Indigenous school-age children were attending boarding schools that were run either by the federal government or religious organisations. Besides providing resources and raising awareness, the coalition has been working to compile additional research on US boarding schools and deaths that many say is sorely lacking.

Officials with the Interior Department said aside from trying to shed more light on the loss of life at the boarding schools, they will be working to protect burial sites associated with the schools and will consult with tribes on how best to do that while respecting families and communities.

As part of the initiative, a final report from agency staff is due by April 1, 2022.

Haaland during her address told the story of her grandmother being loaded on a train with other children from her village and being shipped off to boarding school. She said many families have been haunted for too long by the “dark history” of these institutions and that the agency has a responsibility to recover that history.

“We must uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences of these schools,” she said.


Source: AP

____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net> &  <mailto:jsen at uottawa.ca>jsen at uottawa.ca <mailto:jsen at uottawa.ca>
Now based in Ottawa, Canada, on unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) and in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325)

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